Bitter News, 4-8-09

Quick headlines from the Bitter Newsroom as random as Kal Penn—which is like Joaquin Phoenix, only cooler:

Yale Law student Vanessa “Duck” Selbst is a World Series of Poker player who’s won almost $800,000 in four years of professional play. She learned from her mom who poker-d her way through MIT. The article is awesome. Like, I bet you didn’t know that in addition to poker, she was also known to be so crazy as to play Boggle and Scrabble when a kid. And then there’s the most nonplussing fact: Vanessa “doesn’t carry a deck of cards with her at all times,…” I know—I’m as shocked as you. That’s the danger in just assuming, I guess. [Courant.com]

Detroit’s former top lawyer thinks it’s worth it to work it, put her thing down, flip it and reverse it. (Which is a slightly livelier “Reverse” reference than this.) She’s suing the city for reverse discrimination, claiming she was illegally forced out of her job after she referred to a district court as a “ghetto court.” [Detroit Free Press]

In perhaps a manifestation of their gradeless policy, Harvard Law School’s technology czar, Charles Nesson, is representing a BU kid being accused of illegally downloading music in a federal lawsuit—and his litigation strategy is all open book. [The Boston Globe]

Admit it—you’re a little jealous of your friend’s cheesy brother who’s a waiter at a big, tourist-trap steakhouse in Vegas who, with tips, makes almost as much bank as you do, works a lot less and gets to bang the revolving door of hot hostesses. But what if a judge or a jury could award you a tip for your outstanding service? A gratuity for your effort. The Supreme Court is going to decide if courts can award more money to lawyers who did an outstanding job now that a U.S. district judge added an additional award of $4.5 million in attorney fees down in Georgia. And the great thing about juries? They’re always a party of eight or more. Now if only that bailiff was hot enough to spend it on. [Fulton County Daily Report via Law.com]